Site BLOG PAGE🔎 SEARCH  Ξ INDEX  MAIN MENU  UP ONE LEVEL
 OJB's Web Site. Version 2.1. Blog Page.You are here: entry189 blog owen2 
Blog

Add a Comment   Up to OJB's Blog List

Clouds

Entry 189, on 2005-07-04 at 16:19:01 (Rating 1, Science)

Tonight at 5.52 pm New Zealand time, an interesting astronomical event will occur. A probe from the Deep Impact spacecraft will collide with comet Tempel-1 (deliberately, as part of an experiment). This will cause a significant explosion on the surface of the comet and throw a lot of material out into space, temporarily increasing its brightness.

This should be easily visible from Earth, maybe even to the naked eye (a term used by astronomers to mean visible without a telescope, binoculars, etc).

So being an amateur astronomer for many years I plan to watch this event, of course. But the sky is looking quite cloudy at the moment, a common problem when it comes to interesting astronomical phenomena - although I must admit it was clear for the recent occultation of Jupiter.

The most frustrating thing about being an amateur astronomer when observing from a relatively cloudy region like southern New Zealand is that we can prepare for weeks for an important event and have it spoiled at the last minute by an annoying patch of cloud - maybe that's why I have switched to computing as my main time waster now instead!

If I manage to observe this event I will report it here, in my blog, but looking at the weather now, I won't be expecting to make an entry on the subject.


There are no comments for this entry.


You can leave comments about this entry using this form.

Enter your name (optional):
Enter your email address (optional):
Enter the number shown here:number
Enter the comment:

To add a comment: enter a name and email (optional), type the number shown, enter a comment, click Add.
Note that you can leave the name blank if you want to remain anonymous.
Enter your email address to receive notifications of replies and updates to this entry.
The comment should appear immediately because the authorisation system is currently inactive.

I do podcasts too!. You can listen to my latest podcast, here: OJB's Podcast 2024-08-22 Stirring Up Trouble: Let's just get every view out there and fairly debate them..
 Site ©2024 by OJBRSS FeedMicrosoft Free ZoneMade & Served on Mac 
Site Features: Blog RSS Feeds Podcasts Feedback Log04 Nov 2024. Hits: 49,790,269
Description: Blog PageKeywords: BlogLoad Timer: 12ms